Promotion Of Agricultural Machanization

In Punjab,Pakistan
Rishna Jahan, Arid#:15-Arid-5332
PMAS arid agricultured university,Rawalpindi,Pakistan.
Department of Economics,Degree: Agri-economics, Bs(hons)agriculture.

Abstract/Summary: Pakistan is an agrarian based country. Its labor force and industrial
growth is directly or indirectly linked with the agriculture. Punjab is the main production
province of the country, which covers 69% of the cropped area of the country. According to the
World Bank report (2005), land and water productivity in Pakistan’s Punjab is 2-3 times lower
compared to those at international benchmark. Crop productivity is affected by mechanical,
biological, hydrological, and chemical inputs. The mechanical input may be defined by the farm
power in terms of tractors and implements. The horse power per acre availability in Punjab has
been found to be 0.74, which is very low as compared with India (1.01), China (1.57) and Japan
(2.83). In the water management sector, the Govt. of Punjab has improved 47,000
watercourses out of 58,000; installed drip plus sprinkler irrigation systems on 20,000 acres
along with providing laser leveling services which contributed to 30-40% saving in irrigation
water. Creating awareness and capacity building of farmers, technicians and manufacturers are
desirable steps towards farm mechanization. The way forward for promotion of sustainable
mechanization may include as:

1) Enhancement of available farm power.

2) Mapping and standardization of agricultural machinery.
3) Development of indigenous low cost agricultural machines.
4) Provision of incentives and tax rebates through legislation.
5) Enhancing awareness of mechanization and providing training opportunities.
6) Provision of backup support through adequate repair and maintenance services and
availability of spare parts.

Introduction: Mechanization of farms means the use of machines for conducting

agricultural operations, replacing the traditional methods which involve human and animal
labor.Farm machanization is one of the packages of green revolution technology.Farm
mechanization implies the use of mechanical technology in the varied farming operations like
sowing, harvesting, thrashing, leveling, watering, spraying, weeding etc. The farmmechanical
technology includes:
1.CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY: Plant Protection measures
2.HYDROLOGICAL TECHNOLOGY: Tube wells
3.MECHANICAL TECHNOLOGY: Tractors, Thrashers, Bulldozers etc.
Promotion of agricultural machanization is very necessary and a milestone for agricultural
based economies, and Pakistan is one of such economies.
following are some of the arguments in favor of Farm Mechanization:

 INCREASE IN VOLUME OF PRODUCTION: Farm mechanization has helped in increasing the

volume of agricultural production.
 ENCOURAGES MULTIPLE CROPPING: Farm Mechanization encourages multiple cropping which
was not possible under traditional farming.
 REDUCES DEPENDENCE UPON ANIMAL POWER: Farm mechanization reduces dependence
upon animal power which is costly and also slow in operation.
 DIVERSION OF LAND FROM GROWING FODDER: Farm mechanization makes it possible to
divert the land used for growing fodder for animal power. The same land can be brought
under cultivation for growing food and non-food crops.
 GREATER AREA UNDER CULTIVATION: Farm mechanization saves labor, makes the job for
leveling and preparation of land easy and helps in bringing more land under cultivation .
 INCREASE IN LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY: Farm mechanization increases efficiency of farmers and
raises the output per worker
 TIMELY WATER SUPPLY, SPRAY ETC: The timely availability of water supply from tube wells,
the use of new package of modern inputs has been made possible only with the help of
mechanization. The use of modern inputs increased the yield of crops.
 REDUCTION OF COST: Due to efficient use of resources, through the mechanized farming the
cost of production of various crops goes down.
 INCREASE IN INCOME: Mechanization helps in increasing income of farmers by minimizing
pre and post harvest losses.
 PROVIDES OFF FARM EMPLOYMENT: It provides off farm employment to the population living
in rural areas.
 SELF-SUFFICIENCY IN FOOD: Mechanization of agriculture helps in achieving self sufficiency
and surpluses in food and other crops.

Present status of farm machanization: Pakistan is a low income generating

country. Agriculture is its most important sector due to its primary commitment of providing
healthy food to the fast growing population. In order to improve the productivity of land,
appropriate mechanization strategy should be developed and adapted by keeping in view the
previous trends of farm mechanization in the country.

The level of machanization in Pakistan:

 Farm power availability: Farm power is an essential component of modern farm

mechanization program. Although, the tractor is among one of the major sources of power
available at farm level yet the draft animals, agricultural workers, small scale diesel engines
and electric motors are used as a source of power in the country’s agriculture. The current
 manufacturing facilities available in the country are enough to produce the required
number of tractors as almost all the manufacturing facilities are working on single shift
basis.
Machinery used:small scale disel engines and electric motors. Power sources(tractors,
animals, human labor, tubewells).

 Machanization for land development: In olden days seed was scattered on the land and
accepted the resulted meager yields. Today’s agriculture, in addition to other inputs for the
crop production; mechanical energy is provided to boost the agricultural
productivity.Pakistan is expecting to have double population and become 4th largest nation
by 2050 from current status of the 6th most populous state of the world.
Machinery used: tractor front mounted blades, dozers, excavator and land levelers

 Machanization for tillage and seed bed preparation :Tillage equation of Pakistan consists of
primary and secondary tillage operations. Primary tillage is opening of the compacted soil
with the help of different ploughs to break the hard pan caused by compacted soils.
Additionally, primary tillage is also responsible for inversion of soil, uprooting of weeds and
stubbles. Secondary tillage on the other hand is performed after primary tillage for lighter
or finer operations as after primary tillage, the fields are left with large clods with some
weeds and partially uprooted stubbles (Ahmad et al., 2015). Cultivator is the most widely
used implement for primary as well as secondary tillage of soil and is growing radically
during the last four decades. The availability of the cultivator in the country has augmented
from 369 thousands in 2004 to 901 thousands in 2014.
Machinery used: moldboard plow, disc plow, disc harrow, rotavator and chisel plow.

 Machanization in sowing and planting: The selection of suitable sowing equipment can play
an imperative role in suitable crop establishment by maintaining the sowing depth
appropriately. The optimum plant population and row to row distance can only be achieved
if appropriate sowing machinery is used. The main reason for low crop yield in Punjab is
scanty plant population. Due to time limitation or high cost of tillage and seedbed
preparation, most of the farmers spread seed through broadcasting.This trend of lower or
partial mechanization in sowing continues to exist in the other provinces of the country
which neither provides desired plant population nor results in proper yield.
Machinery used:Drill and planter.

 Machanization In plants protection: Weeds are the major yield limiting factor that uptakes
the plant nutrients, compete with crop, harbor diseases and insects, and hinders the
harvesting operation. The efficacy of applied agro-chemicals is largely dependent on the
spray structure, droplet size, fluid velocity and entrained air characteristics . The chemical
application efficiency in Pakistan was reported to be only 50% and has been attributed to
the use of poor quality spray machiner. Currently, weeds around the country are managed
mechanically and chemically. Intercultural tools like bar harrows and rigid type tine
cultivators are most commonly utilized for crops sown on flat beds.
 Machinery used: bar harrows,rigid cultivators for crops sown on flat beds. Knapsack
sprayers (manually operated and power operated) and tractor mounted boom sprayers
are most widely used for application of pre as well as post emergence weedicides in the
country. Tractor operated sprayers used in Punjab are mostly of boom type for field
crops while canon type mist blowers are also used for orchards.

 Machanization in harvesting and threshing: Harvesting of cereal crops, in Pakistan, is a

major problem since long as this operation is still mostly done by hands. Tractor mounted
reaper windrowers and combine harvesters are also used to a greater extent. Harvesting
losses due to delayed harvesting as well as use of inappropriate harvesting machinery for
wheat, rice and other oilseed crops has been estimated to be around 10%-15%.
Machinery used:feeding type threshers,whole crop threshers,proper size sieves,self-
propelled type reaper windowers,tractor mounted stationary thresher.

Target Vs.Actual Accomplishments: Agronomics was a branch of economics that

specifically dealt with land usage.It focused on maximising the crop yield while maintaining a
good soil ecosystem.Throughout the 20th century the discipline expanded and the current scope
of the discipline is much broader.Agricultural economics today includes a variety of applied
areas, having considerable overlap with conventional economics.

The conventional production practices in the agricultural sector in pakistan still dominantly
remain to be high doses of labour and land with relatively small input and other items
responsible in increasing unit yields. This concept is incompatible with the growth requirements
as it does not ensure the optimum exploitation of land resources,mechanization therefore
emerges as anessential element of development indetermining the growth strategy on all size
of farms including small ones of subsistence holding.The introduction of cooperative farming
linked with marketing has never been in the light of cooperative principles resulting minimizing
the possibility of pooling resources for joint investment for further production.in the context of
the FAO indicative world plans uggesting that all developing economics like pakistans hould
contrive to achieve a minimum desirable level of per cultivated acre(0.47) hectare as against
nearly0.1H.P. Thus scope for mechanization of farms becomes very wide and obvious.Despite
this background,the basic constraints in the adoption of mechanization in pakistan has been the
paucity of foreign exchange and availability of standardized agricultural machinery.To over-
come these short comings arranged foreign credit which were primarily for the importation of
popular makes of tractors and for financing the installation of tubewells act of which infact is
the milestone in the history of this part of sub-continent.it will not be out of place to mention
that the first worldbank credit of$27 million was utilized by the bank much ahead of schedule
and fully reimbursed long before the stipulated period.

Objectives of farm machanization in Punjab,Pakistan:

 Food security management in holistic manner

 Emphasis on innovative technologies to bring vertical crop productivity
 Increase farmer's income through increased crop productivity, better support price and
diversified agriculture practices
 Ensure quality and purity of farm inputs
 Development and adoption of new technologies for enhancing crop productivity
 Improve the living standards of farming community by reducing poverty
 Provision of set of agricultural machines & implements to the farmers at subsidized rates to
increase productivity and profitability by mechanization of farm operations for soil tillage,
seed bed preparation, sowing, spraying and sugarcane harvesting
 To improve mechanization by providing implements best suited for different farm
operations by reducing tractor implement ration
 To improve revenue generating capacity of farmers in order to reduce poverty and improve
the socio-economic conditions by increasing tractor use hours for better utility
 Capacity building of farmers for optimum operation & maintenance of agricultural
machinery

Analysis of project: To achieve the objective of a self-sustaining agricultural

mechanization strategy, a SWOT analysis technique was used to identify the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats and help us provide a framework by which policies can
be defined. The framework includes internal and external factors that affect the development
of agricultural mechanization and seek to provide ideas for agricultural development with the
help of mechanization. These factors were then prioritized using the Hierarchical Analysis
Method, and based on the obtained results, the final strategies were extracted and prioritized
by the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), a multi-
criteria decision analysis method.

Current agricultural machanization practices and attractive attributes

in Pakistan
Agricultural sector always facinated the scientists and fabricators towards itself for the
resolution of the sustainable food supply.The green revolution started in the 1940s for the
purpose of providing the sufficient and healthy food for every citizen.After the successful
application of the hybrid variety of wheat with the combination of agricultural mechanization
technologies.

Status of A gricultural sector in Pakistan:Being an Agricultural country, Agriculture is the

prime implementer for national development, poverty reduction, and food security.19.5%
shares in GDP,a foundation of 42.3% labor force revinue, establishes 65% of export income,70%
of pakistani economy, and accountable for livelihoods to 62% of the residents of
Pakistan.Agriculture sector occupied the chief position in sustainable development, reduction
of under feeding,dimishing the enironmental influence to sustain human life standard and also
responsible of rural employment, the source of energy, raw substantial for agricultural and non-
agricultural industries.

Machanized Agriculture as an art of food security facilitator:Agriculture sector

always fascinated the scientists and stratigy fabricators towards itself for the resolution of
sustainable food supply. Mechanization is a multi-dimensional concept and widely used in
agriculture. There is, however, a major difference between the application of mechanization in
developed and developing countries The developing countries tend to design their own
strategies in food security given the challenges they face in all aspects of their economy
including feeding a growing population, reducing poverty, protecting the environment,
managing the effects of climate change and fighting malnutrition all which may further
contribute to a reduction in economic growth and political instability. The goal of the strategies,
with the help of appropriate technologies, is to lead to a sustainable agricultural development
and, ultimately, food security. The policy making in pakistan and every other countries should
be based on its own conditions. Pakistan as an example of a developing country and considers
the country’s specific climate as well as political and economic conditions to present
development-oriented policies for achieving sustainable food security based on agricultural
mechanization that may be adaptable to other developing countries.

Actions taken:Machanization of agriculture has resulted in increased production through

higher input use effiency by ensuring timeliness and uniformity in performing in the critical
farm operations.The net human labor replacement in the agricultural operations was non
significant and it was more than compensated by increased demand for human labor due to
multiple cropping, greater intensity of cultivation and higher yields.Furthermore the demand
for non farm-labor for manufacture,servicing, distribution,repair and maintenance as well as
other complimentary jobs substantially increased due to mechanization.Punjab agriculture
which has undergone are markable change after independence is now the most mechanised
one in Pakistan.It has been transformed from subsistence farming which was entirely
dependent on animals for draft power, to machanized farming using mainly in animate power
sources like tractors, diesel-engines,electric motors,etc.
For the past four years, it has been an interactive discussion on mechanization and the role it
plays in driving the youth into agriculture. Several challenges were highlighted and the ones
that stood out the most were overly sub-divided pieces of land and the expensive nature of
farm machinery acquisition. Some companies have come up with technologies that enable
aggregation of demand and at the same time improve the efficiency of hiring farm machinery
hence solving the two challenges highlighted. Use of technology can enable owners of assets to
reduce the idle capacity of their assets through sharing models; it can also enable those who
cannot afford to purchase some assets to be able to access services without having to own the
assets.

The team members of Project aims to:

 share knowledge on sustainable agricultural mechanization for different agricultural
systems;
 hold discussions based on specific topics and raise issues related to mechanization;
 share success stories, challenges, and opportunities in sustainable agricultural
mechanization;
 identify information gaps, problems and needs;
 compile the discussion outcomes and identify solutions to address mechanization issues.

Risks And Issues:-

Despite its vital role in modernisation of farming and in raising its productivity,
the pace of balanced and integrated farm mechanisation is slow.

The reasons are many: lack of policy direction, low bank lending for agricultural development
and poor state of local agricultural machinery manufacturing.
Successive governments have focused on launching and re-launching subsidised tractors’
schemes for farm mechanisation while solar-powered tubewells and drip irrigation and
sprinkler systems have virtually been on the back burner but for some initiatives in recent
years.
No doubt, the tractor schemes have helped mechanisation of farming. About 76pc farmers now
cultivate land with tractors, 20pc with tractors and draught animals—and only 4pc use draught
animals alone, official stats reveal.
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, in coordination with the provincial governments, gathers stats
also on, tubewells and lift pumps, cultivators, mould board plough, bar/disk harrows, disk
plough, furrowers and trolleys and trailers. And when one compares their latest counting (of
2010) with the previous one (of 2004) one actually see a growing trend in their usage.
But generally speaking, farm mechanisation is still at an early stage.
And, this is one of the key factors responsible for keeping agriculture where it is now—rise in
per-acre yield is low and slow, pre and post-harvest losses are huge and processing, grading and
packaging of agricultural produce is wanting on many counts.
A study conducted by the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, found a few years ago that in
large parts of Punjab wheat growers use lesser than recommended number of machines which
affects the crop yield. The same can be said about growers of major crops in parts of other
provinces as well.
“One important reason for this is that a majority of farmers, particularly with small land
holdings, don’t know how to prioritise input spending”, says a former secretary of Sindh
agriculture department. “Banks’ low lending for agricultural machinery, and unorganised nature
of agricultural manufacturing also hinder promotion of farm mechanisation.”

Resources used in project: An excellent contributions and suggestions are seen on

different avenues that could be used to get the youth involved in agriculture again.
Contributors have emphasized that innovations, smart technologies, capacity building and
profitability are important when promoting mechanization for the youth. It is also important to
ensure that mechanization together with other important aspects such as marketing etc. help
to increase profit from agricultural operations so that the youth could see the benefit of their
involvement in agriculture. It is need to look at mechanization along the food value chain, thus
creating more opportunities for the youth on areas such as the use of mechanization during
tillage, harvesting, postharvest handling, processing, marketing etc. It is interesting to note that
Agriculturists are getting contributions on the importance of mechanization not only for crop
production but also for animal and fish production etc. This will help to expand the options that
youth could have for their involvement in agriculture e.g. using mechanization in the
production of feeds, processing and value addition etc.

Budget/Financial aspect of Project: The Punjab government is currently working on

a project, with Rs1.184bn budget, to promote agriculture mechanisation. Under this project,
due to complete in June 2017, farmers are getting agricultural tools and implements with a
50pc subsidy. The Punjab government is currently working on a project, with Rs1.184bn budget,
to promote agriculture mechanisation. Under this project, due to complete in June 2017,
farmers are getting agricultural tools and implements with a 50pc subsidy.The federal and
provincial governments periodically announce subsidy schemes for agricultural machinery but
that is not enough. The country needs a well-integrated agriculture mechanisation plan with a
focus on local industry of machinery manufacturing and import of productivity-enhancing
machines.

Results and Recommendations: Pakistan is a low income generating

country. Agriculture is its most important sector due to its primary commitment of providing
healthy food to the fast growing population. In order to improve the productivity of land,
appropriate mechanization strategy should be developed and adapted by keeping in view the
previous trends of farm mechanization in the country. This article will summarize the
information regarding the level of mechanization in the country and try to highlight the
weak areas of the field.
Conclusion: The yield gap can be covered by introducing advanced farm equipment
and the increased use of farm equipment. But due to industrial and housing colony
revolution, cultivable waste is also increasing due to which total cropped area is reduced on
yearly basis. To maintain the crop yield and to fulfill food requirements, use of machinery
viz. drill, planters, tractors, harvesting machinery and sprayers is enhanced. All of
opportunities exist in Pakistan to get benefits from this sector but this can only be realized by
introducing effective policies and strategies at the government level. The strengthening and
effectiveness of research institutes of the country are also necessary which will ultimately lead
to a better utilization of innovative machinery for better productions.

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